My father in law likes to mark his scorecards during a round like this.

0, 0, +1, +1, 0, -1.....etc

Where 0 is par for a particular hole and bogeys are +1 and birdies are -1. Doubles would be +2 and so forth.

I don't mind when he does it and I do realize during a round with your buddies this wouldn't be a problem as long as the math is right. But what about a tournament? What if you had 18 pars and wrote 18 0's on the card for a final score of 72? Would this be permitted once the card is signed and turned in? I can't imagine it would be but I can't find a rule governing the actual way to mark a card.

I know its a crazy question but I've been curious about this. He says it doesn't matter as long as the final tally is correct and true. I call BS as far as tournaments go. I seriously doubt anyone on the PGA is marking their cards like that.

You have to right down the actual score. The final tally or score for the round is not part of the player's responsibility, only the correctness of the score for each hole.

Also, your FIL could add the total scores incorrectly and not be penalized, however if he records a score lower than he actually scored for a hole and turns in the card, he is DQ'd. If he records a score higher for a hole than he actually scored, he's stuck with the higher score.

As a side note that's what happened to Roberto DeVincenzo in the 68 Masters. He wasn't disqualified for turning in a wrong score because his score on the 17th hole was recorded as a stroke higher than he actually took. That higher score stood and he lost by one. Tommy Aaron was Roberto's marker. Roberto did not catch the mistake.

Further, in a tournament, your FIL would not be keeping his score anyway, a marker would have his card. He would have someone else's.

My father in law likes to mark his scorecards during a round like this.

0, 0, +1, +1, 0, -1.....etc

Where 0 is par for a particular hole and bogeys are +1 and birdies are -1. Doubles would be +2 and so forth.

I don't mind when he does it and I do realize during a round with your buddies this wouldn't be a problem as long as the math is right. But what about a tournament? What if you had 18 pars and wrote 18 0's on the card for a final score of 72? Would this be permitted once the card is signed and turned in? I can't imagine it would be but I can't find a rule governing the actual way to mark a card.

I know its a crazy question but I've been curious about this. He says it doesn't matter as long as the final tally is correct and true. I call BS as far as tournaments go. I seriously doubt anyone on the PGA is marking their cards like that.

Thanks!

Dragan

In a tournament, if he signed and returned a card like that, he would be disqualified. I've known others who marked like that too, and one friend joined the Men's club, played his first tournament, and because we always exchange cards at the start of the round, he marked his fellow competitor's card like that for several holes. The FC happened to look over my friend's shoulder at some point and saw how his card was being marked and instructed my friend in the correct way of competition scoring. There was never a threat of the FC being DQ'ed since he'd have corrected the scores before signing. We always check and verify our own scores before signing the card, but he would have had to explain the messy card to the committee to avoid any pointed questions.

When returning a card which has any changes or corrections on it, both the player and the marker should go to the committee together so as to ensure that everything is on the up and up.